One of our key partners, Catapult, have recently collaborated with University of Birmingham, forming a partnership to enhance student athlete development. The investment in a Catapult athlete-monitoring GPS system has revolutionized training and performance support for flagship sports like Hockey and Rugby. The data that is collected, primarily facilitated by 2nd and 3rd year placement students providing further learning opportunities, will not only directly inform the respective coaches and teams around players physical outputs and assist with long-term monitoring of each player, but also improve the schools teaching and research practices.
Further to the addition of wearable technology, the University also invested in Catapult's pro video suite to be used across video analysis with their performance teams and utilising the integration of physical performance data to further contextualise physical outputs.
Here are a few different viewpoints from some of the key stake-holders in the process:
“One of the main uses of this system is to provide students with an opportunity to gain ‘hands on’ experience in utilising equipment that is commonly used within professional sport and giving them an opportunity to partake in a role that is becoming critical to the applied setting. In addition, we are now providing our sports coaches and players with high level information about their training and match play.” - Dan Lothian, Applied Sport Scientist – University of Birmingham
“The Catapult GPS system that supports our hockey program is outstanding. The ability to monitor players workload to make sure we balance and manage players fatigue levels. On top of that, allowing me to make training far more specific, linked around the players physical capabilities, trying to match our intensity levels and our work rate in training to that of our games. This makes our Hockey programme far more specific and I am really excited to see how far we can go with it in the future.” - Mark Moss, Head of Hockey – University of Birmingham
“This is part of a long-term strategy within the GSSPP to create more impactful, purposeful people. With the help of Catapult who provide continued support throughout this initiative has already proven effective.” - Dr Liam Anderson, Assistant Professor in Applied Exercise Physiology - University of Birmingham
"The acquisition of Focus and the Hub by the University of Birmingham into their analysis product suite enhances the capacity for collaboration between athletes and coaches, alongside providing a great learning tool for current students, the next generation of analysts. The ability to objectively measure key aspects of performance, linking to a specific game model, is an essential aspect of the coaching process which both products will facilitate." - Paul Travis, Product Specialist - Catapult
Please click here for an introduction to Catapult.
